Thursday, August 20, 2009

Climateer Line of the Day: Nikola Tesla at Mental Floss

Conversation Starters◆ By the age of five, young Tesla had already invented his own waterwheel and read the 100-volume set of the Complete Voltaire.By comparison, we could, um, count to 10 and pretty regularly avoid peeing on ourselves....

Some more tidbits:

◆ Celibate throughout his life, Tesla also feared round objects (which perhaps goes along with the celibacy). He once said, “I do not think you can name many great inventions that have been made by the married man.” The wedding ring, perhaps?

◆ Tesla would have been great fun at parties. At the Chicago Columbia Exposition of 1893, he sent 200,000 volts through his body to prove that electricity was safe. It was, although his hair stood on end for a week....